Ready, Aim, Fire
by Sweet Misa
Summary: After twenty years of sleep, Marla leads a ship of augment females in a journey to find her beloved and continue a species. Sequel to Radioactive.
1. A New Race

**Disclaimer: **I don't Star Trek. I'd be richer if I did.

**A/N:** See this is totally a thing. I mean it took hell of a long time because you know writer's block and I suck at starting things, but here it is.

Chapter One: A New Race

Gasping was the first thing that registered in Marla's conscious state.

The breaking of first breath was something she had long forgotten. Memories couldn't come to the surface, but her breath was there, struggling, needing to find existence, for she was alive. Finally she took her first real breath after so long. Time wasn't a thought in that moment, only the sudden struggle to survive and the screeching of unidentifiable sounds.

Her eyes steadily focused in on white then darkness with some soft hues reflecting, light coming from above. Marla sat herself up ,clawing at the sides of the place that held her.

Prison. Home. Sleep.

The words hummed without structure or meaning.

"Marla? Marla McGivers?" She heard it aloud before registering a gender to the voice. Male, she believed, but she could not see. Her muscles were too loose and tight all at once. "Is that – yes, that's her. Lieutenant Marla McGivers."

"She's human." Another voice quickly put in. Her arms were loose. She could barely keep her head up. Marla was unable to register the males by sight.

"When?" It was a struggle to speak. Her voice did not sound like her own, though she could not recall what she had sounded like before the sleep. Slowly her head lifted. The figures were around the same height though young with barely enough meat on their bones. "When am I?"

"When?" She could process that with a slow nod. Marla knew she was awakened, but she would have imagined seeing humanoid figures and indeed the two youths were human. "2279."

It wasn't her time. She recalled the numbers being off. The future then. She had been awoken in another time though when she looked up the scenery had appeared to remain the same. Her mind wasn't working well as of yet. She couldn't process the math. Her head still felt heavy. Despite being in sleep for so long Marla felt like she needed a rest from reacquainting herself to her body once more.

"She's human."

"Okay, well, we try a-"

Marla's hand reached his throat squeezing head slumped. Slowly her eyes lifted to register him blonde wild hair, deep brown eyes, pale with a boyish need to him. He may have been in his twenties, but his uniform screamed of an officer with high rank. Her nails scratched at the thin hairs the tickled his neck standing upright in shock and surprise. His pulse quickened as she slowly lifted her back straight cracking it a little. The math finally sank in.

"Twenty years." It was a long time, but it wasn't so long. Her father was most assuredly dead. "Why?" The question that pleaded her. Her head turned slightly to see the other pods. Her eyes widened feeling something build in her belly.

Terror.

"I can answer that, Dr. McGivers." She slowly let go of the boy to turn to a slightly older man. He may have been in his thirties, dark hair, blue eyes, side burns that burdened his cheeks and a slow drawl in his voice. "I'm Cadet Jackson Simmons. I'm studying the Engenics Wars and the incident with Khan and yourself that occurred twenty years before in order to better provide Starfleet with a better defense." He motioned to the curly haired blonde. "Lieutenant Howes has security access, guarding the augments and I asked if he could awaken one so that I may have a discussion with them about their time on Earth."

Marla peered between the two not quite sure how such a young boy gained access to security and to the title of lieutenant. She then felt the need to speak, but instead she slowly lifted herself out of the pod. Howes seemed to roll into a panic approaching her quickly.

"We need to freeze her again she can't remain to –"

She punched him in the throat knocking him backwards. Her eyes sat on Simmons who appeared to be in mute terror, his hand on his blaster.

"I do not care if you shoot me." She told him with ease. "You are in your right to do so," He shook. Perhaps he knew stories. Perhaps her reputation reigned as firmed as her husband's. "I only have one simple question." The terror lurched inside her. "Where are the remaining augments?"

She hadn't had time to count them, but most certainly there were not seventy three pods behind her. She could count more than ten, but less than forty in that split second. Marla knew that one of them could not be her husband. They would have to separate the pair, lethal as they were apart, the destruction they had caused together had been frightening.

"There was a program." The cadet started.

She heard the charging of a blaster. She sat herself on the edge of the pod staring at Simmons as it was fired in her direction. Marla fell backwards rolling, knocking into another pod. Her hand went to her thigh where she recalled vaguely feeling a sharp pain when she awoke. The metal made her smile as she pulled with a wince. Another shot was fired. This one hit her as she rolled. It burned though it distracted her from the pain at her thigh. Howes was held against her chest, scapel at his throat. Simmons held the blaster firmly to her from a distance.

"Please continue." Marla insisted. "Perhaps without the blaster." The dark haired man slowly let the blaster fall to his side. Her unoccupied hand motioned for him to kick it over to her. He did as he was told.

"Ten years ago," Simmons swallowed. "The project didn't have a name, but a grouping of geneticists wanted to monitor the survival of the augments to see what kind of society they could establish if on their own."

Marla watched his eyes peered behind her with a clouded sense of interest. He was hungry for knowledge in a new way. There was history behind her he needed to get at. She'd settle for manipulating that hunger if need be.

"So, what, they sent out some of them? Where?" She asked trying not to shake with need. She was hoping the truth would not be what she was thinking.

"All of the males." Those words were not what she wanted to hear. It was clear why though. If the augments were capable of breeding the race would expand far beyond the seventy-three that were known. The male of any species was usually considered the strongest, it would benefit these researchers to watch the men in action.

"To the uninhabited fifth planet in the Ceti Alpha System. They were given minimal supplies and no ship." She watched him. The way he stood told her something was off about this story. Marla drew a dash of blood from the neck of the boy she held captive. Simmons took a step forward. Marla leaned against the pod occupying one of Khan's female crew members.

"How did they fare?"

"Contact," He swallowed. She could see him become uneasy twitched as she glanced to his blaster. "Contact was lost with Ceti Alpha V six moths after their arrival on the planet. The project was abandoned."

"No one cared to look after them? To - ?" She stopped herself before pushing the boy off. She grabbed his blaster from Howes side as he fell to the floor. She snatched both blasters and tucked the scalpel back into her thigh. "Never mind." It was pointless to ask the two what Starfleet's intentions had been. They were already unaware what they were dealing with.

"Howes." She watched as his eyes widened at his name. He stumbled to his feet. "You know the combinations to open these pods correct?" Marla saw his body begin to shake slightly. "Answer me. Do you or do you not know how to open these pods?"

"I do."

"Then we open them." She could count the pods now.

Thirty. Thirty female augments to be ripped from slumber into a new world.

She would have to lead them if she was going to get her husband back and continue the race she had longed to be a part of.

**A/N: **Okay by now you know that I will be including some plot points (maybe A LOT) from _Wrath of Khan _just in sort of a different way.

What to look out for next chapter, lots of new characters, female augments = more badassdom. Will they accept Marla as their leader or is a mutiny on the horizon before anyone has gotten started?!


	2. Strategy of Recovery

**A/N:** I'm totally back! I won't make excuses other than writer's block (and moving and grad school and new computer), but I'm hoping this was worth the wait. Also I'm contemplating renaming this story. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter Two: Strategy of Recovery

Marla expected resistance. She expected nothing, but fury when it came to awakening the females. What she did not expect was obedience and understanding. She did not even conceive of anything other than a fight when the first pod was open. Her eyes stared watching as the woman struggled to right herself. Once the caramel skinned woman's dark eyes set on Marla she could see the sudden unresolved emotions, panic, confusion, than at the sight of her wrist peace.

"Where is our captain?"

She knew she had to choose the first woman with care.

"Do you know anything about these augments, Howes?" she examined them watching as the dark haired man followed at her heels like a puppy. Simmons was doing his best to regain his composure by sitting down trying to choke life back into his throat.

"No, Ma'am." She eyed him curiously. He dipped his head momentarily. "What I mean is that, our records, have not gotten any better."

"They've gotten worse." Simmons hacked for a moment. Marla could see tears in his eyes from both pain and terror. She swallowed looking at each pod with mute curiosity.

"How were you to determine which augment was the least lethal to speak with?" She waited for an answer trying to determine any organization system from the outside of the pods. When she didn't receive one she turned to see Howes staring wide eyed at her. She sighed. "You didn't have a strategy?" No answer confirmed her suspicions. "I see education has not taken a step in the right direction either." She shook her head readying herself to defog the glass with her arm. "Or common sense."

Her flesh squeaked against the glass letting the built up cool moisture rest steadily on her arm as the bridge of a pale nose came into her eyesight along with the long lashes of a large eyed young woman.

"They're in sequence." Simmons stated.

Marla turned seeing him get to his feet. He wobbled a bit which the woman saw as a sign to remind him that she held the upper hand in the form of both their blasters. He glared at her clearly still scared, but with a new form of confidence weighing on him. He had knowledge she sot, though he was not clever enough to keep it from her.

"How?" Nor was Howes clever enough to stop himself from asking questions.

"They were programmed that way." The blonde boy held a glimmer in his eyes while looking to the other Starfleet official. Marla was sure she could use that later. "In the system," He paused making his way over to a stationed area that held a screen and some blinking red and green keys. He pulled something up onto the screen with a wave of his hands and a motion of his fingertips.

"Before the Botany Bay was discovered, the sequence in which the augments were to be awakened," She looked over his shoulder. "Were put in place. We've kept those sequences for the females." Marla scanned over the ordering noticing there were only numbers of the pods with sequences done in asterisks beside them. "You were the last in the sequence." She turned to him scanning the bottom of the list seeing that she had a number listing her pod.

"Well than," She peered to the top of the list. "Her. Awaken her." She heard Simmons swallow. She grinned at the reaction memorizing the coding going toward the pod.

"Why –" Howes started.

"Because she's the most lethal." Marla found her quite quickly. She should not have recognized the woman when she wiped the fog from the window, but she did.

She tried to recall the name merely remembering the moment rather than the exact words she had exchanged with Khan. Khan. She could remember him. She could remember how she felt, though she regretted those emotions building within her. She focused on the anger within her, fury at his absence.

"If I can manage to get her acceptance," She heard his footsteps, lighter in nature. She reached for the blaster pointing while staring at her, dark skinned, bangs, beautiful. She pointed it at Simmons without a thought feeling it heat up in her hand. "Than the others will follow." She than looked to see Simmons held a small tool gleaming in the low lighting of the room. Her eyes fixed on Howes. "And that dear, is strategy." Her eyes fixed on Simmons once more. "Now kindly drop your weapon and open the pod, Lieutenant."

It clattered to the floor. Marla motioned him over with the blaster feeling Howes' eyes fix on her as he slowly moved. She watched Simmons hurry over, a new fear masking within him. His confidence was gone. She had milked it from him with that final threat.

"I have heard of you." The slow drawl regarded her from over her shoulder.

"Oh?"

"Yes," There was little interest in her asking, but it seemed a good way to pass the time while Simmons looked over the keypad to remember the sequence. "You're looked upon as –"

"You get it wrong and you'll get her killed." She aimed the blaster on him making plainly certain it was on kill rather than stun. "And yourself, so I suggest you think this over really carefully." She blinked as Simmons slowly nodded.

"People regard you as a radical." Very boring it seemed. "What you did, for him, for the augment," He didn't say it. He didn't say his name. She traced the letters on her wrist scratching at the bite marks that had long ago healed. "People have toyed with the idea that you were blackmailed into –"

She laughed.

"Oh, me? That's very unclever of me to do such a thing." She raised her brows as well. "Dumb in fact. Bleeding idiot I must be to get blackmailed into save my life. No doubt society must have my medical records, know I was dying and by my knowledge of course I would know the augments had potential healing properties so I must have goaded him into it. Must have right?" She was careful to watch Simmons' fingertips.

"Nobody would want to die, Doctor McGivers." He put in.

"No, I suppose that's true, but I also didn't want to exist without making a difference." The numbers beeped in sequence making a positive noise. The blonde took a step back.

"Terrorism is not a difference."

"To me it was exposing the truth. I was being used by two men, is it so strange that I used what was given me for my benefit?" She stared at the man seeing the glimmer of blue in his eyes, the confusion at her confidence in her stance. "It was fascination and need at first, but I became enamored with the danger, with the mission, the cause, and the idea. I had no calling before. I had already made up my mind about myself. I held no purpose because there was no after for me. The opportunity fell into my hands." She stared out giving a half smile with a low spreading of a chuckle. "Who was I to say no to that kind of chaos?"

Marla saw the beginning of her awakening. She wondered if hers had started the same, the soft sizzle that spread throughout the room. She rushed to her side feeling her hold grow tighter on the weapon in her hand, before she snatched up the tool that had fallen to the floor. She watched the fog spill rolling as if it were dry ice filling a room. She waited, watched, held her breath in hopes that Khan's most valued female was someone who would be willing to see past the obvious.

She was human.

She was not one of them.

Surely Marla was aware that they would recognize each other. Even after hundreds of years, sleeping, frozen, they could see one another as what they were. She noted the structure of the outfits on the young woman. She was clad in black, trousers and dark button up top that was rimmed with emerald around the collar shiny in the lighting. Her hair waved ebony with streaks of lighter browns throughout.

She had bangs that covered a large half of her forehead with curved eyebrows that regarded her intelligence even as she slowly stirred. Her nose was angular with a linear perfection that rivaled any woman she had regarded from her country of origin. She meant not to judge the woman based on her features alone, but she saw the complexion she held and her appearance was seen as someone from India. Marla recalled the origins of Khan Noonein Singh in Kali, the Indian facility.

Her eyes slowly blinked open showing the dark nearly black pupils at the sudden rush of air. She, however, found breathing a much easier sense. She slowly took in breathes while her eyes effortlessly analyzed the room.

Marla stared when the words were uttered as the woman began to sit up. Her eyes took Marla in with a comfort level that was strange and unwelcoming. The red head would have much preferred hostile behavior. She was expecting hostility in the wake of a stranger not the warmth and fear she received as if they shared the same fears.

"Where is our captain?"

Our captain? It was that strange mixture that settled into Marla's stomach that made the recollection hit her, without thinking she spoke. Her eyes gazing over the steadily breathing, yet wide eyed young woman, augment female.

"Katya." Her name was a slow breathless feel. The augment gave a slow nod before her eyes darted to the two men in the room. "They're harmless." She studied them giving a slow smile.

"Human, useless." She stretched her back letting her fingers flex with a long snap and grip at the edges of her pod. "Where is he? Where is Khan?" She searched Marla before reaching to snap her wrist, the one where he had marked her. "He wouldn't have given you this mark, if he did not think you were worthy." She stared at Marla with a knowing in her eyes.

"I'm his wife, human."

"It would appear so." She slowly pressed her hand to Marla's face testing her pulse. "Were you in the cryo tubes as well?" She pressed her thumb along her lower lip to study the lower part of her teeth. "For someone without augment blood you appear to be adjusting rather –"

"She has augment blood." Katya looked to Howes who spoke. "She tricked Khan, your captain into –" Without breath or reason leaving, Marla she found the blaster taken away.

Katya fired it quickly toward the midst of Howes chest he was knocked backwards. Simmons started forward, he was hit in a similar fashion. Marla's eyes widened as Katya began to take apart the weapon emptying out the pieces to lay out along the rim of the pod.

"I hate when they try to turn enemies against one another." She started to rebuild it. Marla peered behind her trying to decide if she should check on Simmons. "Don't fret, love. I'm a quick study. Had it on stun for the light haired boy." Marla turned unable to find words. "My memory is still a bit foggy, but I do still have the sequences somewhere in my head, though it'd be nice to have a back up." She smiled tilting her head. She peered around. "Tell me, now where is that sod?"

"They've taken them to Ceti Alpha V." Marla spun on her heels trying to comprehend what was happening. It was easy to step over Howes' body. She could hear him gasping for breath. She made her way to the computer. "It was a program to see if the augments could build a – " She heard a thud seeing that Katya had tried to get herself out of the pod. Her legs did not appear to be in working order. She was on a heap on the floor wrinkling her nose though moved her hand forward for her to continue. "Functioning society."

"Without breeding. Smart, very smart." She appeared to survey the room. "Starfleet? Is that who you are affiliated with?"

"Was." Marla explained trying to find the next pod to unlock. "Twenty years ago, Khan was awoken under the alias of John Harrison to create weapons for an impending war humanity was to have with the Klingons," She looked to Katya who stretched out her toes trying to concentrate and close her eyes in a meditative state. Her finger began to stretch in time with her toes, covered in dirty combat boots. "An alien race, brutal, brilliant, full of honor."

"The fools." Katya laughed. "Go on. Tell me how you fit in."

"I was an expert in weapons, the wars. I was called upon to analyze him, figure him out."

"Oh he must have had a field day with that. Did he tease you?" Katya grinned doing breathing exercises. "Sorry," Her eyes fluttered open briefly. "Please continue."

"I was always interested in his kind, well, your kind," She could not comprehend speaking with another augment. She felt as though she had reverted back to the days before she had known Khan, trying to pick her brain if need be. "I wanted to know more, gain more knowledge about the very little I knew about the wars, the weaponry." She watched Katya put her hands in prayer position, pushing energy together and downward toward her legs. "At first it was that, that kept me going, than it became the fear, the fear that I may die without seeing the action I long craved."

She found the next pod to open journeying over to it quietly not wanting to disturb the augment. Marla slowly found her way to Simmons whispering to him her request. He barely found the courage to reject her demand. She slowly pointed the other blaster to his head. He gave her the sequence with ease.

"I was dying. I was in need of vengeance." Marla turned making her way across the room to the next pod in the sequence. She wiped away the moisture to see her, mangled hair, dark rims around her eyes. "I was afraid I would not see my death avenged, but he offered me my life. He gave me life." It was only right to return the favor now, save his people. She started typing in the sequence readying herself for the new challenge once the beeping of positivity went off.

"I will admit I was a bit taken with him, but I was highly aware of the danger, who he was. The stories I have heard – brutal and fair – the best of the tyrants." She felt her body slump slightly, her head spun with the sudden realization that the weight was on her shoulders now, being his wife, it fell to her to continue his legacy, lead them.

"Surely it was not that that led him to trust you so strongly. Khan hates enamored school girls." Katya's voice was dulling slowly from the distance, echoing even.

"My excitement, I suppose was a factor, passion, desire. I was willing to do anything to get what I wanted, my life and vengeance."

"And did you –" Katya asked. "Did you get what you wanted?"

Marla was unsure of what she meant to say, but she felt her throat clench as the second free augment gripped her. She wasted no time in aiming her weapon right at the woman's belly. Her stare became stern. She did not waste all her time to be taken down by one of the people she was meant to lead.

She fired sending the woman back.

Marla turned to look at a visually stunned Katya standing to her feet.

"I believe he is the one who got what he wanted, my dear." Marla stated with a grateful smile.


End file.
